Another Ho-Hum Giants Comeback

ENLARGE

Giants wide receiver Victor Cruz spikes the ball after scoring the winning TD against the Redskins on Sunday.
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By

Joshua Robinson

Updated Oct. 22, 2012 10:57 a.m. ET

Defensive end Justin Tuck is so accustomed to Eli Manning's fourth-quarter comebacks that he hardly reacted when he saw Victor Cruz spike the ball in the end zone Sunday afternoon. Jason Pierre-Paul wasn't even watching. And for Osi Umenyiora, it felt like the millionth time Manning had pulled this off. It was actually the ninth since the beginning of 2011.

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"I was just like, 'Yeah. OK,'" Tuck said with a shrug.

But he added that the Giants' late-show routine was getting old, and he blames it for his gray hairs.

Manning's latest fourth-quarter comeback came with 1 minute, 23 seconds remaining in Sunday's game against the Washington Redskins.

This time, when he ultimately found Cruz, Manning couldn't even see the end zone from his vantage point, flat on his back 77 yards away. But the roar of 81,352 fans inside MetLife Stadium told him everything he needed to know. Once again, Cruz had reeled in a bomb. And once again, he was splitting double-coverage for a touchdown.

With that play, the Giants overturned a three-point deficit to beat the Washington Redskins 27-23 for the first time since 2010. The victory put the Giants' record at 5-2 and, just as importantly, was their first in the NFC East after losing to the Dallas Cowboys and the Philadelphia Eagles.

"Looking at the back of 80's heels there at the end, holy cow, what a great feeling that was at that point in time," coach Tom Coughlin said, referencing Cruz's number.

As Cruz streaked home, he even took a moment to glance up at the stadium's big screen to check out the situation behind him. He saw two defensive backs giving chase, cut to the right and only then knew that he was home free.

"With our offense and with Eli at the helm, we're never really too worried," Cruz said.

But Manning's connection with Cruz was, in reality, the only moment of spectacular offense from the Giants. Until then, they had looked disjointed, with Manning overthrowing his targets all afternoon. The final pass aside, he only completed 25 of his 39 attempts for 260 yards with two ugly interceptions.

"They were getting pretty good pressure at times, so I didn't have all day to sit back there," said Manning, who absorbed six quarterback hits and a sack.

For most of the afternoon, he was upstaged by Robert Griffin III, the Redskins' showstopping rookie quarterback. The Giants defense had seen his heroics in the first six weeks of the season and they had reviewed his 76-yard touchdown run two games ago. It was all enough for defensive end Umenyiora, who had once dismissed Griffin by calling him Bob, to correct himself. "Sir Robert Griffin III," would be his nickname from now on, Umenyiora said before the game.

Griffin made good use of the zone read early on, but he saved the real freewheeling for the fourth quarter.

Facing a fourth-and-10 from his own 23-yard line, Griffin scrambled to his left for what seemed like an eternity. Still pedaling away from Pierre-Paul and with Umenyiora closing in, he surveyed the broken play in front of him and flicked a pass over the middle for 19 yards. He followed that with a 24-yard dash to his right and, two plays later, with a 30-yard touchdown pass that looked like a game-winner.

"I'm pretty mad at the football gods for putting him in the NFC East," Tuck said of Griffin. "Having to face that guy twice a year is going to be a headache.... He takes away from your enthusiasm for the game a little bit when you play a play perfectly and he still has 4.3-speed to outrun guys."

In the buildup to the game, the focus had been on the matchup between Griffin and the Giants' rejuvenated pass rush, which came alive in their road win against the San Francisco 49ers. So Griffin's solution in the first half was to avoid the passing game altogether. Led by Alfred Morris's 94 yards, the Redskins ran the ball 20 times for 146 yards and threw it just eight before halftime.

"I choose not to think about how they ran against us in the first half," said Tuck, who didn't lay a hand on Griffin until late in the second quarter.

But the balance tipped in the second half. Pierre-Paul and Umenyiora combined for three sacks. The Giants' defense held Morris to just 26 yards after halftime. And safety Stevie Brown returned an interception for 41 yards, setting up Ahmad Bradshaw's go-ahead touchdown run.

"No one is going to stop them completely," Umenyiora said of the Redskins. "It's just going to be impossible. So, you just have to count on them making some mistakes. Eventually, they will."

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